[Triumf-seminars] TRIUMF Colloquium today at 14:00

[triumf-seminars at lists.triumf.ca]

Date/Time: Thu 2011-05-26 at 14:00

Location:  Auditorium          

Speaker:   Alan Astbury (University of Victoria)

Title:     Cancer: a physicist's point of view

Abstract: It is well established experimentally that cosmic ray neutrons are a source of soft errors in silicon based microelectronics. The mechanism which is responsible for the errors appears to be the production of alpha particles in the semiconductor by the neutrons. Examples from historical cancer mortality rates, results from experiments in radiobiology, and the modern geographical patterns of cancer mortality, can be combined to propose what might be regarded as an audaciously simple and provocative single root cause of human cancer, in particular for adenocarcinomas, which make up approximately 85% of the burden of cancer on society. Human beings on planet earth are continually exposed to irradiation from internally produced alpha particles. The case will be presented briefly. As an example of the utility of this admittedly causally unproven simple model, it will be applied to yield an explanation for some of the observed features of breast cancer mortality, and male and female colon cancer mortality. The hypothesis provides a framework within which global, and when appropriate, national cancer mortality can be examined, yielding explanations for many issues, which traditionally have served to provide for much speculative and often somewhat anecdotal epidemiology. As is often the case with simple models, it fails in one of its predictions. However there is always the possibility that eventually one may learn more from an understood failure, than from a stream of successes. This issue, which remains an open question, will be addressed.

Stimulants available 15 minutes before the talk.

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